The Krishna river is in spate at Prakasam barrage following heavy rain in the catchment of its tributaries like Musi, Paleru, and Munneru. The Vijayawada Irrigation Circle authorities operated 57 crest gates of the barrage on Thursday raising them by one foot and released a surplus of over 40,000 cusecs downstream to maintain the statutory level of 12 feet.
The authorities stopped release of water into the irrigation canals that supply water to the delta areas in Krishna, Guntur, West Godavari and Prakasam districts because of heavy rain in these districts. Ironically, the amount of surplus water that has been released downstream Prakasam barrage, the last major irrigation structure on the River Krishna, since July 1, has already crossed 260 tmcft. The farmers of Krishna Eastern Delta had to make do with 200 cusecs released into the Eastern Main Canal on July 11 nearly one month behind schedule because of delay in execution of the Delta modernisation works and lack of water in the major reservoirs at that time.
Every farmer knows that paddy crop that is transplanted late is at the risk of being damaged by cyclones that usually hit the delta in the first week of November. Unfortunately for them cyclonic weather caused by the North East Monsoon is all poised to either damage or reduce the yield by the end of October itself. Contrary to the situation in the delta and the rest of the coastal area, Nagarjuna Sagar is the only reservoir that is receiving some inflows. Srisailam that is downstream of both Almatti and Tungadhadra recorded an inflow of 3,400 cusecs, but the discharge recorded from Srisailam after power generation was just 6,200 cusecs.
